REVEALED: 8,500 Offaly drivers have penalty points on licence

Almost 18% of all drivers in Offaly have penalty points on their licence, according to the latest official statistics.

Central Statistics Office figures show that a total of 8,685 driving licence holders in Offaly had points in 2017. Of these, 6,403 had between one and three points.

1,958 drivers in Offaly had incurred between four and six points while 324 motorists had more than seven points.

Of the 48,718 licence holders in Offaly, 17.8% had penalty points. This is just above the national average of 17.7%.

Offaly had the lowest rate of drivers with penalty points of all four midlands counties. Laois had the highest rate of people on points in the midlands counties with 20.2% of licence holders.

Wexford, Galway, Kildare and Kilkenny were the top four counties with a high proportion of drivers with points. The lowest rate of points awarded was Donegal.

In total 506,587 people had penalty points in 2017 when nearly 2.9 million people held driving licences.